Understand why customers really buy by uncovering the "job" they're hiring your product to do

• Understanding customer motivation beyond demographics and feature requests
• Finding product-market fit by identifying the real progress customers seek
• Discovering why customers switch (or don't) between solutions
• Identifying true competition that isn't obvious from industry categories
• Creating marketing messages that resonate with real customer struggles
• Prioritizing features based on unmet customer needs
• Conducting customer research that reveals actionable insights

1. Uncover the real job - The progress customers are trying to make in their lives
2. See all three dimensions - Functional, emotional, and social needs
3. Understand the forces - What pushes people to change and what holds them back
4. Map the job - Break it down into steps where you can add value
5. Identify true competition - Everyone solving the same job, regardless of category

• "Customers hire us to DO _______________"
• "Customers hire us to FEEL _______________"
• "Customers hire us to BE SEEN AS _______________"

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │    PUSH     │
                    │ Problems    │
                    │ with status │
                    │    quo      │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           ↓
┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   HABIT     │←────│   CUSTOMER   │────→│    PULL     │
│  Comfort    │     │   DECISION   │     │ Attraction  │
│  with old   │     └──────────────┘     │   of new    │
│   way       │                          │  solution   │
└─────────────┘            ↑              └─────────────┘
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    │   ANXIETY   │
                    │   Fear of   │
                    │   change    │
                    └─────────────┘

• Increase Push: Help customers see the true cost of their current solution
• Increase Pull: Demonstrate the progress they can make
• Reduce Anxiety: Provide guarantees, trials, social proof
• Reduce Habit: Make switching easy, offer migration tools

• "Minimize the time it takes to find ingredients"
• "Minimize the likelihood of burning the food"
• "Increase the confidence that family will enjoy it"
• "Minimize the effort required to clean up"

1. How important is this outcome? (1-10)
2. How satisfied are you with current solutions? (1-10)

"As a [user type], I want [action], so that [benefit]."

"When [situation/context], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome]."

• Circumstance (the trigger)
• Motivation (the real goal)
• Outcome (the definition of success)

• Job: Make the boring commute more interesting and stay full until lunch
• Functional: One-hand consumption, filling, lasts the whole drive
• Emotional: Feel satisfied, not bored
• Social: N/A (alone in car)
• Competition: Bananas, bagels, donuts

• Job: Be a good parent by treating the kids
• Functional: Quick, manageable for children
• Emotional: Feel like a caring parent
• Social: Be seen as fun/generous by the child
• Competition: Ice cream, candy, toys

• Morning: Make it thicker (lasts longer), add texture (interest), self-serve kiosk (faster)
• Afternoon: Smaller size, quicker to consume, kid-friendly packaging

• Push: "I was embarrassed when I lost a client email and missed a deadline"
• Pull: "This makes me look like I have my act together"
• Anxiety: "What if it's overkill? What if I can't figure it out?"
• Habit: "I've always just used sticky notes and Gmail"

• Functional: Keep track of tasks and deadlines
• Emotional: Feel in control, confident
• Social: Appear professional, reliable to clients

1. "When a client sends multiple emails about different projects, I want to quickly organize everything by project, so I can respond promptly without missing anything."
2. "When I'm on a call with a client asking for a status update, I want to instantly see where everything stands, so I can sound professional and knowledgeable."

• Add "client view" so freelancers can share professional-looking status updates
• Create quick-capture feature for emails
• Build "instant status" dashboard for calls

1. "When did you first realize you needed something like this?"
2. "What was happening in your life at that moment?"
3. "What did you try first? How did that work out?"
4. "When did you first hear about [our product]?"
5. "What almost stopped you from trying it?"
6. "What was the moment you decided to actually use it?"
7. "What did you have to give up or change?"

1. [Solution] - How it gets the job done
2. [Solution] - How it gets the job done
3. [Solution] - How it gets the job done

• Key circumstance details:
• Emotional state:
• Social context:

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• Structuring audio production workflows
• Providing technical guidance
• Creating quality checklists
• Suggesting creative approaches

• Replace audio engineering expertise
• Make subjective creative decisions
• Access or edit audio files directly
• Guarantee commercial success

• Books: Competing Against Luck (Christensen), Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice (Ulwick)
• Institute: Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
• Framework: Outcome-Driven Innovation (Strategyn)
• Source:

  sources/books/christensen-jobs-to-be-done.md

• positioning-dunford - Position your product for the job it does best
• category-design - Create categories around jobs that need solving
• buyer-personas - Complement JTBD with who has these jobs
• grand-slam-offers - Design offers that address the full job
• conversion-copywriting - Use job language in your copy